Beretta or Benelli? Are you a "Berettist" or a "Benellist"?

The choice between shotguns of a similar level of quality often comes down to a question of personal preferences and tastes. Perhaps one the most common decisions of this type that we hunters are faced with is when choosing between semiautomatic shotguns. Which is better: Beretta or Benelli? 

As a recap for us older practitioners and for our younger readers: A semi-automatic shotgun action is a shotgun that is able to fire a cartridge after every trigger pull, without needing to manually chamber another round. These shotguns have a magazine for 2 or more rounds (in Spain there is a two cartridge limitation) and a mechanism that takes advantage of the force of the shot to extract and eject the empty shell and also cycle the action and load another round from the magazine.

There are 2 systems to achieve this “automatic reload”: gas systems or recoil systems. 

Gas Systems

Nearly all semi-automatic shotguns use a gas reload system. 

Beretta, together with Browning, Fabarm, etc, have refined and perfected this system to an exceptional level, giving us today shotguns that are not only robust and light weight, but that are also highly effective and reliable in their automatic reload.

Gas systems work in the following manner: On taking a shot, the firing pin hits the cartridge piston, which ignites the primer producing the propellant combustion and resulting rapid expulsion of gases.  It is these gases that push and propel the wad and the shot through the gun barrel.  

The gas system takes advantage of the gas expulsion via one or more orifices in the lower part of the barrel (covered by the forend), opening a gas valve (or piston) in the reverse direction to the shot direction, that actions the bolt to extract and eject the shot cartridge and load a new round into the chamber also activating the firing pin ready for the next shot. 

Detail of gas expulsion workings and the "piston"

Cutaway and position of the gas exit port that actions the piston

The downside of these mechanisms is that to work perfectly the mechanism must be clean, the barrel, the gas port, the piston and the shaft along which it moves. They do also function when the mechanism is moderately dirty, but these expulsion gases carry a gunpowder residue that adheres to the parts mentioned, and gradually this forms a coating if not properly cleaned, causing problems and resulting in guns that jam from time to time. That said, these systems have evolved so much, that they work perfectly even on cartridges with a low charge (eg. 24gr en 12 bore caliber)

Recoil Systems

Benelli offers a recoil reload system.  This system takes advantage of the recoil force in order to extract, eject and reload via a series of springs (recoil springs). The enormous advantage of this type of system is that they don’t get nearly as dirty as gas systems.  

Without any gunpower residue build up, overall, these guns are renowned to be tremendously long lasting and effective. 

Detail of the Benelli recoil system

However, for some, rounds with lower loads (24gr or 28gr in older guns) have given problems…

Both Beretta and Benelli have long traditions and either of the two without any doubt is a great choice (I should say that there are many other brands also on the market).

In my own case, I own a Beretta that I have heavily used over the years and that has never given me any problems. It is true though, that I have developed a ritual of cleaning it after every outing leaving it ready for next time. I am however really keen on the Benelli system, and I am sure that its no coincidence that there are very few of these guns on the second hand market … 

I would not exchange my Beretta for any other gun, but if I was to buy a semiautomatic shotgun now, it most probably would be a Benelli…